I've gotten to a point where I can afford a solution like this and could really make good use of it, what with services like hulu putting restrictions on when they'll show something or how long it'll be archived; but I seem to hear some rather common threads of negative commentary about the series3 (units locking up spontaneously or simply refusing to record for some unspecified reason).

So my question is, does anybody know (first) if these concerns ARE widespread or if it's just the internet allowing the small sample size who happens to have similar problems to congeal into a larger entity, and (second) of any other solutions in this vein?

I thought about HTPC but there's not currently any tech to interface cableCARDs with a x86 based device, and I need the thing to be intelligent about channel switching and such as I have digital cable.